Genesis 27:18-40

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

¹⁸ So he went in to his father and said, “My father,” and he said, “Here I am; who are you, my son?” ¹⁹ Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game, so that you may bless me.”^{(A) 20} But Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?” He answered, “Because the Lord your God granted me success.” ²¹ Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.”^{(B) 22} So Jacob went up to his father Isaac, who felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” ²³ He did not recognize him because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands, so he blessed him.^{(C) 24} He said, “Are you really my son Esau?” He answered, “I am.” ²⁵ Then he said, “Bring it to me, that I may eat of my son’s game and bless you.” So he brought it to him, and he ate, and he brought him wine, and he drank.^{(D) 26} Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come near and kiss me, my son.” ²⁷ So he came near and kissed him, and he smelled the smell of his garments and blessed him and said,

Esau’s Lost Blessing

³⁰ As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of his father Isaac, his brother Esau came in from his hunting. ³¹ He also prepared savory food and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, “Let my father sit up and eat of his son’s game, so that you may bless me.”^{(H) 32} His father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?” He answered, “I am your firstborn son, Esau.”^{(I) 33} Then Isaac trembled violently and said, “Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me, and I ate it all before you came, and I have blessed him?—yes, and blessed he shall be!”^{(J) 34} When Esau heard his father’s words, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me, me also, father!”^{(K) 35} But he said, “Your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken away your blessing.” ³⁶ Esau said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob?^[a] For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright, and look, now he has taken away my blessing.” Then he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?”^{(L) 37} Isaac answered Esau, “I have already made him your lord, and I have given him all his brothers as servants, and with grain and wine I have sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son?”^{(M) 38} Esau said to his father, “Have you only one blessing, father? Bless me, me also, father!” And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.^(N)

³⁹ Then his father Isaac answered him: